PHOTO BY BOB ROCHE
Four penalty killers kneel in front of goalie Kyle Casey waiting for the puck to be put into play during Wednesday’s practice.
BY STEVE FREKER
MALDEN— The Malden Catholic Lancers have been skating around with a target on their backs for so long, they may as well have one sewn into the back of their jerseys.
They’ve played 30 games in the Super 8 Division 1A Hockey Tournament in the past seven postseasons, gone 28-2, and been favored to win every game.
Sixth-year head coach John McLean’s icemen have won five championships, including five of the past six. And yes, they are favored to win another one this year, heading into the 2017 Super 8 battle as the No. 1 seed, the Lancers’ first such pre-tourney designation since 2012.
On Sunday, Malden Catholic (13-4-3) will play the marquee game at Lowell’s Tsongas Arena in the first game of the best-of-three first round with a 6 p.m. puck drop against No. 8 Marshfield (19-2-2). The Rams defeated Austin Prep, 4-3, in the Super 8 play-in game.
McLean knows it’s nothing new for the Lancers to be the hunted.
“Our kids know they’ve got a target on them every time they step on the ice. Our coaches know it, and that plays a major role in how we prepare, in everything we do,” McLean said. “It’s been like that around here for a long time now.”
It’s become a replay in each preseason poll, in every preseason tournament prediction. High school hockey watchers and polling pundits expect Malden Catholic at the top of the list. They assume excellence.
“We expect excellence, too (as coaches), of course we do. We prepare to play to get a win every time out and our players know that the first time they step onto the ice as a member of our team,” McLean added. “It’s hard to have that kind of pressure on them every night out, but that’s what these kids signed up for when they came here.”
The lineups may change and rosters may be different each year, but the Lancers goal as a program has long been pointed toward the top of the mountain.
It’s been that way since the late Christie Serino, a Saugus native, took the reins as head coach in 2005. Serino guided the Lancers to its first-ever Super 8 tourney berth in 2007. After an inauspicious three-and-out introduction that season, it has been a remarkable run for Malden Catholic since, as it enjoys its 11th consecutive Super 8 journey.
Despite the wide experience gap, Super 8-wise, between Malden Catholic’s 11th appearance in a row and Marshfield’s very first this year, McLean said he and his team are expecting nothing less than a dogfight from Marshfield, whose season included a 13-game unbeaten streak and the best the regular season in program history.
One of the highlights the Rams point to is not a win, but a 3-2 loss to No. 2 Arlington, two weeks ago in the Ed Burns Classic.
“That really motivated our players,” said Marshfield coach Dan Connolly. “It really made them believe we belonged and could play with the best teams around.”
Then Marshfield came back from a 3-0 hole and beat an Austin Prep team that was touted as a possible top Super 8 seed two weeks ago.
“They (Marshfield) are solid, they can play and they are well-coached,” said McLean, who was in attendance at Monday’s game. “They never gave up and they never quit. That’s a big deficit (3-0) in an elimination game against a great Austin Prep team. They proved they came to play and are capable of reaching down deep and scoring quickly when they had to do so. Our kids are very well aware of that now.”
For the Lancers, it’s been a true “reloading” season. With just six returnees who logged significant playing time last season, McLean and his staff had to hit the ground running with a lot of new faces. The result has been a bit of a “new look” Lancer squad, which personifies more of a “blue collar” style than in recent seasons.
“We are definitely a blue collar team, for sure,” McLean said. “We start from the net out and everyone contributes. We are not rolling out any superstars this year, we need all 15-to-20 guys who see regular action to chip in.”
The most experienced players on the team are the “Dynamic Duo” of battle-tested goalies, senior Kyle Casey and junior Bryan Cannata. Cannata’s 1.16 goals against average is second in the state with nine starts in net while Casey, a fourth-year varsity netminder, has a .917 save percentage in 11 starts.
Senior Justin Collins leads the Lancer scorers with seven goals, 13 assists and 20 points while fellow senior co-captain Tim Albert has nine goals, nine assists and 18 points. The rest of the Lancer scoring is spread out evenly among the roster. Sophomore Jagger Benson, who played for Lynnfield last season, has been a valuable addition with two goals, four assists and six points.
“We need everyone playing together, that’s how it’s been. Everyone gives extra as well especially guys like Colin Nestor and Ryan Noonan (both Malden residents),” McLean said. “We call those guys the ‘dawgs’ because they just have that bulldog mentality and are always looking to do that extra something to help us get an edge and win.”
Malden Catholic dropped a pair of games near the end of the season, including a 3-2 loss to Central Catholic in the Springfield tournament. But McLean does not see that as a negative.
“Hey, I don’t like to lose, no one does. But it’s not always a bad way to get a great look at one you are doing and reassess and see where you need more work and fine-tuning and realize that no one is just going to show up and win around here. It takes everyone working together…and that’s what it will take for us to go and win Sunday night. One day at a time and one game at a time, that’s what brought us here and that’s how we’ll play it.”
